Industrial trucks must be aligned within a warehouse in order to correctly pick up and deliver the goods to be transported. For example, order pickers are positioned within a shelf aisle of a warehouse near a storage bin from which materials are to be removed. The order picker is positioned on one side of the shelf aisle. For the operator, this allows a very short transportation path from the storage bin to the picking vehicle. Currently, such a side orientation of an order picker within the shelf aisle is basically done manually. It is, for example, known that the operator moves the order picker to the corresponding side of the shelf using a control unit provided on the industrial truck or a remote control unit. Semi-automated procedures are also known in which the operator indicates by pressing a button whether the industrial truck is, for example, supposed to orient itself on the right or left of the shelf, and then the industrial truck independently moves to the corresponding side of the shelf. It is also possible for the industrial truck to automatically be oriented on the side of the shelf on which it was (manually) approached by the operator. The described methods therefore always require additional input by an operator to specify a side orientation.
A method is known from EP 2 851 331 B1 for controlling an industrial truck in which the industrial truck has an optical sensor with a monitoring region, wherein the optical sensor is connected to a control device that determines the position of a person within a monitoring region specified for the optical sensor, and makes the industrial truck follow the person. For this, monitoring limits are specified within the monitoring region, and their breach by a person is monitored by a control device. If a breach of a monitoring limit is discerned, a drive of the industrial truck is controlled to move the vehicle forward until the person is again located on the original side of the monitoring limit. The vehicle thereby follows the person.
A method for integrating an autonomous industrial truck in a plant administration system is known from EP 2 500 871 A1. The industrial truck has a navigation system and a plurality of other sensors whose data are transmitted wirelessly to the plant administration system. By means of the plant administration system, an operator can interact with the industrial truck and accordingly control it remotely. If the industrial truck becomes inoperable, for example due to an obstacle in its driving path, the event is reported to the plant administration system, and then an operator can intervene in the driving behavior of the industrial truck.
A horizontal order picker is known from EP 2 392 538 A2 that comprises an operating element that, upon being actuated, independently moves the horizontal picker a length corresponding to a distance between an operating state of the horizontal order picker and a bin. This can save the path of the operator between the pickup point and bin.